August 31, 2012

“Don’t underestimate the value of your screen fashions” advised Photoplay magazine, in December 1931. “You
can go back home with a wealth of ideas for pepping up your own clothes
picture.”

As an unusual and subtle way to plug their hot new horror
film, Frankenstein, just then rolling
out across America, Universal entertained Photoplay magazine’s young women
readers with pictures of Mae Clarke, the film’s Elizabeth, modeling screen-worn
fashions.

Published under the title Stars Broaden Shoulder Lines, the first photo shows Clarke in the fur collar
dress — “Worn in Frankenstein” —
from scenes where she and Victor recruit Dr. Waldman and travel through a storm
to the tower laboratory where her fiancé, Henry Frankenstein, treats them to a
lightning show and the first stirrings of his slab-bound Monster.

The second photo shows Clarke in a light wool crepe number
accessorized with a “vest-like arrangement” of baronduki, a fancy name for the
Siberian squirrel. This is the dress she wore in the scene where Elizabeth
returns to the lab, this time with Henry’s pompous father, only to find her
beloved in a state of nervous collapse. “See this in Frankenstein” reads the copy.

The studio, or perhaps the magazine editors, chose to show
Clarke in smart street clothes, something readers could aspire to. In the film,
Clarke also appears in a very chic lace dress and, of course, a spectacular
wedding gown with an endless train.

“Intelligent and well-presented… avid in seeking out a wide range of examples... A useful research aid for those seeking to survey the uses to which the Frankenstein monster is still being put in popular culture.”— Intute, Arts & Humanities

“Outstanding and intelligent … I am insane with giddiness that "It's ALIVE!!"— Max, The Drunken Severed Head

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